ALASTAIR COOK made a virtue of patience yesterday and plans to continue doing so after returning to form at the top of the England order.

Cook’s 136-ball 65 was the highest of three significant contributions – Matt Prior (52no) and Ian Bell (48) were the others – as England responded to South Africa’s 291 all out with 241-7 at Newlands.

The tourists therefore remain in with a chance of converting their 1-0 lead into a series victory after day two of a third Test which seems destined to be won or lost, rather than drawn.

England had Cook principally to thank, as he followed his 118 at Kingsmead last week with another important innings.

“It’s just a patience game and sticking to your gameplan – don’t get twisted from it, and you’ll be all right,” said the left-handed opener.

“There are always times when the emotion goes up when you’re batting. But you’ve just got to control that and keep yourself in check and they will come to you eventually.

“I just try to keep a clear head and try not to think too much what they’re going to do. . . believe that the ball will come into your areas eventually. They might get their lengths slightly wrong then you cut them.”

Cook has always been a no-frills batsman but has recently taken his percentage game to new extremes.

“When you haven’t been scoring runs, the patience is a lot harder to pull off,” he said.

“The cover-drive might be there at some stage, on wickets I feel I can play it on. But it’s a high-risk shot for me.”

He eventually fell to a tame, aerial pull shot at Morne Morkel straight after tea and admitted: “It’s frustrating, when you do all the hard work. But it’s one of my shots, and I obviously didn’t execute it very well. A lack of pace is what has probably done for me.”